Missile threat issued wrongly in Hawaii, citizens spooked

HAWAII, U.S. - In a shocking incident on Saturday, authorities in Hawaii sent out a serious warning to citizens, claiming that a ballistic missile was inbound and citizens would have to take immediate shelter.

The alert sent on Saturday, in all capital letters, read, “Ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii. Seek immediately shelter. This is not a drill.”

The alert led to immediate panic and chaos in the region, with several citizens taking to social media to find out exactly what had happened. 

Then, 38 minutes later, authorities sent another alert to cellphones, saying that there was no ballistic missile headed toward Hawaii.

The corrected alert read, “There is no missile threat or danger to the State of Hawaii. Repeat. False Alarm.”

The incident comes at a time when tensions between North Korea and the U.S. are extremely high, with the U.S. announcing a day back that it had deployed three nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bombers and 200 air personnel in the territory of Guam.

The installation came months after North Korea threatened to launch a missile that would strike Guam.

The U.S. base in Guam operates two Army missile launcher pads along with a reserve. 

Commenting on the U.S. decision to deploy the bombers to Guam, Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. said, “The bomber deployment is part of an ongoing planned deployment that affects not only the Korean Peninsula, but also a broader alliance structure in the Pacific.”

North Korea meanwhile has said that it has successfully tested ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States.

Meanwhile, shortly after first alert was issued on Saturday, Representative Tulsi Gabbard, Democrat of Hawaii, tweeted that she had confirmed that there was no missile.

She wrote, “Hawaii – this is a false alarm. there is no incoming missile to Hawaii. I have confirmed with officials there is no incoming missile.” 

Even the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency tweeted that there was “NO missile threat” to the state. 

Hawaii Emergency Management agency spokesman Richard Repoza said the alert was a false alarm and said that the agency was working to determine what had happened.

Cmdr. David Benham, a spokesman for the United States Pacific Command, said in a statement, “USPACOM has detected no ballistic missile threat to Hawaii. Earlier message was sent in error.”

Citizens in Hawaii described the incident on Saturday and said that after seeing the alert, many though that they had less than 15 minutes to live and that traffic in many areas came to a standstill.

Others in the state said on social media that nuclear attacks is at the top of everyone’s mind because of the recent standoffs between Trump and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un.

Many others expressed that they were sleeping when the alert was send and woke up in panic after receiving calls from relatives and friends.

Meanwhile, Senator Mazie K. Hirono, Democrat of Hawaii, emphasized the importance of making sure that “all information released to the community is accurate.”

She said, “We need to get to the bottom of what happened and make sure it never happens again.”

Even Senator Brian Schatz, Democrat of Hawaii, tweeted, “There is nothing more important to Hawaii than professionalizing and fool-proofing this process. What happened today is totally inexcusable. The whole state was terrified.”

So far, officials have not clarified why the false alert was sent but Gov. David Y. Ige said in a statement that he was working to figure out what had happened.

He said in the statement, “While I am thankful this morning’s alert was a false alarm, the public must have confidence in our emergency alert system. I am working to get to the bottom of this so we can prevent an error of this type in the future.”

Soon after, the White House confirmed that President Donald Trump had been briefed about the situation.

After a short while, Hawaii Gov. David Ige said that human error caused the alert to go out.

He said, “It was a mistake made during a standard procedure at the change over of a shift, and an employee pushed the wrong button.”

The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency Administrator Vern Miyagi said that he had headed to the agency's 24-hour operations center to find out why the false alert was sent out and said later, "The warning was a mistake.”

However, a White House official contradicted and told reporters, “This was purely a state exercise.”

Officials said in the report that the FBI's Strategic Information and Operations Center, Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency are monitoring the situation.